Shady Baby

Ashley wished she could turn away from the glare of the overcast sky, but the stroller's head brace was always far too strong. She would try to close her eyelids, but the light still burned through, splashing warm pools of orange and red on their surface. The occasional shade of overhanging trees and a stranger's smiling face were much relief and always a cause for celebration. Ashley remembered the new bib and managed to pull it up and over one of her aching eyes. This was enough she thought, half the light was enough. She spotted her mom talking to another woman. The vibrations in her ears and the movement of her mom's lips were too complicated to understand. Instead she dreamt of later that day when they would both lie down together, her mom taking her in her arms and Ashley could finally turn away and bury her face in her mom's soft skin.